Spring Cleaning for your Digital Presence: A Social Media Audit

It's Spring! Grass is growing, blossoms are emerging, and you're feeling like decluttering your home. Your digital presence will also benefit from some Spring cleaning, starting with a social media audit.

A social media audit will help you determine what content is working to engage your audience and which social tactics drive sales.

Step 1: List all your social accounts What platforms do you have an account with? Are you active on all of them? Are there other people within your organization who are also posting to social media?

Search the web and different social media platforms for your company. You may be surprised to find that several accounts have been abandoned but still exist. There may be accounts created before your time that you weren't even aware of!

Make a master spreadsheet for all your social media accounts. Include:

• Log-in/password
• Is the account active or dormant
• Owner of the channel
• Audience demographics

Step 2: Review all of your accounts Delve into each social account to see if they're up to date.

• Are they still "on brand?" Do they reflect your brand's philosophy and mission?
• Do the visuals reflect your current look? Or are there dated logos out there?
• Are the profile and cover images current?

This is a great time to ensure that you are using the same social handle across all channels. You want all of your content easy to find for your audience.

Review your accounts to find out if the information is relevant and valuable.

• Review your links; are they still active and working?
• Are your pinned posts relevant and accurate?

For each account, identify the top three performing posts and the bottom three. Look for patterns to determine what is working and what is not. Do videos outperform photos? Do links gain greater traction?

Step 3: Set goals Set Set new goals for each channel and have clear objectives. If you aren't tracking any metrics, now is the time to start. If you are trying to gain brand awareness, track each. If you are working to drive sales, track link clicks. Set a dedicated time-frame for results, maybe review monthly? Or quarterly?

Evaluate whether all your social media channels are driving your business. Knowing your audience and their interests will help you identify what channels will be advantageous.

Step 4: Assign channel owners Once you have decided which channels you will continue to focus on, choose a channel owner. This can be the key to the success of your social media efforts. Determine the critical roles:

• Who creates content?
• Who schedules posts?
• Who measure the success?
• Who is responsible for crisis communication and emergency management?

Step 5: Delete what isn't working Don't be afraid to delete:

• 2nd handles on the same network (clear up any overlap)
• Channels that are outdated or off-brand
• Accounts that don't have a clear champion or owner

If you decide to delete a channel, have a clear plan for informing your team. Design social copy to inform your audience and remind them where they can find you. Redirect traffic to your active channels.

Step 6: Perform regular audits Set a time to do a social media audit annually or even more frequently. Designing content and posting material takes time; make sure your time spent is truly driving your business.

The team at StreetDog can help you determine what social media platforms will best suit your business needs, and work with you to provide compelling content.